Recommend me a fitness tracker

[MontyVeda]

Looks like my FitBit Charge2 has packed up (battery won't hold its charge, seems to go from 0-100% in a matter of minutes, and back to 0% a few minutes later. Tried resetting it... no joy)

The Charge 4 is £99 at Agros, which is about the maximum I'd want to pay.

I see Garmin, Huawei and other brands have entered the fitness tracker market... so any recommendations?

 

[Time Waster]

I had a similar budget but I saw a fenix 6 reduced from £600 to £329 and succumbed. Can't really help you with your budget but take a look at blacks outdoors as they might sell cheaper garmin models at amazing reductions too.

 

[MontyVeda]

bump

 

[newts]

Refurbished Samsung Gear Sport is £90 on amazon at the moment.
I've been using the Gear S3 for 3 1/2 years paired with a Samsung phone & it's been great.

 

[MontyVeda]

what's the battery life* like @newts?

*I know it varies a lot with what's switched on or off... my FB2 last about three days 'til i turned loads of features off, then got a good 10 days out of it

 

[Bonefish Blues]

What functions do you need/use on your tracker?

I like Xiaomi devices, and my daughter has a junior tracker. For what they offer, they're for very cheap, but they are very much trackers, iyswim. This is the NFC version, take that away and cut a tenner from the price:

Amazon product ASIN B09DCP4SVPView: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Smart-Band-Breathing-Resistant/dp/B09DCP4SVP/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2J6E7A3ZVM8F5&keywords=xiaomi%2Bfitness%22&qid=1641114821&s=electronics&sprefix=xiaomi%2Bfitness%2B%2Celectronics%2C45&sr=1-3&th=1

 

[vickster]

If you don’t mind the colour, this Huawei is well discounted, 2 week battery life claimed
https://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=L&...iundb025L1AhWRbsAKHRTBDGAQ5bgDegQIARBQ&adurl=

 

[MontyVeda]

What functions do you need/use on your tracker?

I like Xiaomi devices, and my daughter has a junior tracker. For what they offer, they're for very cheap, but they are very much trackers, iyswim. This is the NFC version, take that away and cut a tenner from the price:

Amazon product ASIN B09DCP4SVPView: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Smart-Band-Breathing-Resistant/dp/B09DCP4SVP/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2J6E7A3ZVM8F5&keywords=xiaomi%2Bfitness%22&qid=1641114821&s=electronics&sprefix=xiaomi%2Bfitness%2B%2Celectronics%2C45&sr=1-3&th=1

Can you chose different clock styles? I'm a sucker for an analogue clock face.

 

[vickster]

If you don’t mind the colour, this Huawei is well discounted, 2 week battery life claimed
https://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=L&...iundb025L1AhWRbsAKHRTBDGAQ5bgDegQIARBQ&adurl=

That said, looking at the reviews it might not have great gps so depends what you want to do with it…probabky a factor of getting what you pay for

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Can you chose different clock styles? I'm a sucker for an analogue clock face.

I'm not sure the form factor best lends itself to an analogue face, but I'm sure there must be some amongst the many thousands of downloadable ones available online.

 

[MontyVeda]

GPS is something I'd like, other than that, it's just steps and sleep monitoring... no interest in reading texts and getting alerts for emails and such like.

 

[MontyVeda]

went for a Garmin Forerunner 35 for £87 from Blacks... it was the claimed 13hr battery with GPS as opposed to 5hrs on the Charge 4 that swung it, plus £12 cheaper

 

[newts]

what's the battery life* like @newts?

*I know it varies a lot with what's switched on or off... my FB2 last about three days 'til i turned loads of features off, then got a good 10 days out of it

3-4 days would be average, depending what apps are used. If you use GPS tacking about 1-2 days. I usually charge it every other night whether it needs it or not. I only use it for tracking when walking. Time & heart rate are the most used functions, occasionally to control Spotify.

 

[MontyVeda]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the forerunner 35... not Garmin's latest model but serves my needs very well.

Like many companies, Garmin are removing older versions of their software, so it was a bit of a parp finding a version of Connect that'll run on my Android5 phone. The app is far nicer than the FitBit one, although I'm not sure its sleep tracking is as accurate. The GPS mapping will come in handy when i start doing big bike rides again.... just hope i get more than a few years use out of it before it dies.